Software Tips

I’ve worked with DxO's OpticsPro imaging software for several years and have watched this program evolve and make great strides as a Raw image converter. What the new DxO OpticsPro 10 version of the software brings to the table is a cadre of new features and improvements. But are these enough to catapult this software into the top tier, or is it still playing catch-up?

Yes, you know that the tools and filters in Adobe Photoshop and Elements can do many amazing things, but did you know that they can empower you to make your own planets? If you have yearned to create and rule your own worlds (and who hasn’t?), then pull up some of your images and fire up Elements or Photoshop. We are going to create a galaxy of new worlds.

Adobe has just announced that final releases of Lightroom 5.7 and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) 8.7 are now available. These updates offer several key features including a new tool to import files from Apple’s now defunct Aperture professional software, and from its current iPhoto consumer imaging software to Ligthroom.

Photoshop hall-of-famer, author and noted digital imaging pro Martin Evening recently updated this popular guide to include detailed instructions for the recent updates to Photoshop CC (Adobe’s Creative Cloud). The book includes a variety of new features such as: Focus Area selections, enhanced Content-Aware filling, Spin and Path Blur gallery effects.

There’s a considerable difference between resizing, which means maintaining the same pixel dimensions and adapting to different document sizes at the same print resolution, and resampling, which means building additional pixels from the original file to enable printing larger documents at the same resolution. Say you have a 24MB file, obtained from an 8 megapixel digicam, that will normally fill an 8.5x11” print at 300 dpi when printing. But you just got a 13x19” printer and want to try your luck at that size, still at 300dpi. Well, for that you would need a 62MB file.

There’s no question that do-it-yourself photo books have captured the imagination of photographers, from pros to those who simply want to create a remembrance of a journey or to gather family photos. While just about every imaging software and online picture service, from iPhoto to Shutterfly, offers quick and easy bookmaking, there are some companies dedicated to serving the higher-end market, generally pros but also including every photographer who wants a stylish, custom-designed book. Software to help design the book is a key ingredient, as are options for book materials and binding. And in the end, the quality of the images reproduced, and the facility of ordering and making images ready, is what makes the bookmaking process a creative, fun project that will result in a book that will be cherished for many years.

We all strive to produce photos that are perfect right out of the camera. Unfortunately, sometimes what comes out of the camera doesn't quite match what we envisioned when we pressed the shutter button. Here are some easy things you can do to improve your photos after the fact.

We all strive to produce photos that are perfect right out of the camera. Unfortunately, sometimes what comes out of the camera doesn't quite match what we envisioned when we pressed the shutter button. Here are some easy things you can do to improve your photos after the fact.

Digital images—whether shot with digital cameras or scanned from negatives, slides or prints—generally can stand some improving. Here are some tips that will improve many of your images noticeably. Keep in mind, though, that digital image-editing isn't magic: Just as with film, you can't add detail that isn't there, or make a sharp image out of one that'so...

Robert Herko is a professional photographer who's in great demand in New York (he's just settled into a larger shared studio in Manhattan), California, and Arizona, where he once lived. His clients include Hummer, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, VISA, Arizona's Department of Tourism, Arizona Highways magazine, Arizona Western College, and several casinos in the western...

Greg Vander Houwen describes himself as "an artist by nature; illustrator by trade"--one who often incorporates photography into his digital art. As he puts it, "My primary business is commercial illustration and user interface design." Vander Houwen believes that photography is a limited term these days, and...

Here are some fun (and/or useful) things to do with your images and image-editing software

Digital imaging makes it easier to produce effects that are difficult to do by traditional photographic means, and makes it possible to do things that can't be done otherwise. And you don't have to use a digital camera to do digital imaging—you can have your slides, negatives and prints...

Improvements in capabilities and ease of use make the most popular pro image-editing program even better

Adobe Photoshop was introduced 11 years ago this month, and it's been the photo-editing tool of choice for most serious photographers and desktop-publishing professionals ever since. Does that make it the right one for you? Well, if you're serious about digital...